BlackBerry And Nokia - Surprising Signs Of App Traction?

Some signs of interest in BlackBerry and Windows app platforms are emerging this summer - just as rivalry between BlackBerry and
Nokia seems closer than ever. I have talked to three different large app houses over the past week and each of them cited some momentum for Windows over the past six months, mostly due to tolerable success at Verizon. Two of the three also witnessed growing interest in BlackBerry.

Jordan Edelson, the CEO of Appetizer Mobile, has overseen the production of 125 apps in recent years. Appetizer Mobile is often listed as one of the Top 10 app vendors in America.

"Clients are cautiously optimistic about Windows Phone," noted Mr. Edelson. "Most come in looking for iOS or Android development for their first version of the app. The second round of development involves discussion about Windows Phone and/or Blackerry 10. Six months ago, clients were considering only Windows Phone as a third platform. Now, Blackberry has re-entered the conversation and decision process. I think this is partly associated to the recent press around the successful launch of the Q10."

"The Q10 specifically with the Qwerty keyboard has attracted enterprise clients looking to develop for the platform," said Mr. Edelson. "Enterprise clients specifically aren't concerned about scale and distribution size outside of their ad-hoc environments, so it makes a lot of sense for them to consider this as a supported platform. Non-enterprise clients are taking a wait and see approach to Blackberry 10. In their case, distribution size is a much more important metric to determine whether the platform should be supported and a substantial ROI can be achieved."

In a way, the direct competition between BlackBerry and Windows camps on the app front only starts now, after the Q10 debuts in North America. The competition for enterprise app customers may well be the most important fight for the two challenger platforms.

BlackBerry and Nokia were not particularly direct rivals a few years back. Much of BlackBerry's sales strength was derived from North America where Nokia was perennially weak. Nokia's hot markets were India and China, where BlackBerry market share was below 1%. But as Nokia focuses on Verizon and
AT&T to give its Windows program new momentum and BlackBerry has found most 2013 traction in Middle East, Africa and South-East Asia, the two vendors are suddenly veering into the same lane.

Interestingly, BlackBerry's May quarter volume estimates for the new 10 OS device range have recently started moving from 3-4 M unit range to 5 M unit mark in some recent brokerage research notes. Expectations for Nokia's Windows phone sales during June quarter have also inched up in recent months, to 7 M per quarter.

Both companies thus face a situation where they are rebuilding their old smartphone franchises with new operating systems, hitting roughly 5-7 M quarterly pace during this spring quarter. Both are staging serious attempts to rekindle the interest of leading US operators, AT&T and Verizon. One potential tie-breaker between the two vendors could well be application market traction. Both of them lag far behind
Apple and Google, which are racing towards the goal of hitting 1 million mobile apps available. But the door may not be entirely closed for a third alternative to build a niche of its own - at least in the enterprise environment.